Sonja Tofik – ‘Neuros’

Moloton is a new label, grown out of the experimental electronic scene in Stockholm, Sweden. Their debut release, Neuros, is also the first from artist Sonja Tofik, a member of the Stockholm collective Drömfakulteten (“dream faculty”). Neuros is all minimalist gloom play with droning synths, full of oblique but at other times sung vocals. The whole mood reminded me of a near-mythological Gothic place near my home in São Paulo, circa the mid-90s — obviously dark (very dark), lit only by candles and a slow strobe light on the basement dance floor. Something arises from participation in environments like this or Tofik’s compositions on Neuros: the diving into the self, into the mind. A plunge that conjures a deep aura of mystery, feelings cultivated off by themselves. Feelings and atmospheres that by their nature are hard to resolve beyond sensation, a riddle that reflects the same early period of the internet. For me it pleasantly conjures that primitive threshold with its static Geocities sites and chat applications like ICQ (an acronym actually derived from the phrase “I seek you”), when everyone and everything still sounded more enigmatic than they ever could be.

Neuros is available in limited edition cassette at Moloton website. Digital album included.